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Jeremy Lin Is Shopping a Memoir. Start the Bidding!

There aren’t a lot of 23-year-olds who could get a million dollars for writing a book about a life mostly spent studying and playing basketball. But Jeremy Lin isn’t just any 23-year-old.

Publishers are already starting to circle the New York Knicks’ overnight sensation, who’s leading his team to a long-overdue resurgence. I’m told literary agent Richard Abate of 3 Arts Entertainment is representing him, although it’s not clear if there’s a proposal yet. (I called and emailed Abate but he wasn’t immediately available for comment.) Industry sources say a Lin memoir would likely score an advance of at least $500,000, which could climb into seven figures given a strong proposal.

Segal ought to know: He edited “Open,” a memoir by tennis great Andre Agassi, which reached No. 1 on The New York Times bestsellers list. He’s quick to note that Knopf hasn’t been approached about a book or approached Lin’s representatives, although it did recently publish a book about basketball in China, “Brave Dragons,” by New York Times reporter Jim Yardley.

Lin’s youth would likely be a source of concern for publishers considering buying his memoir, says Segal, as would the short time he’s been playing. Would he have an interesting story to tell? Will his fame endure, or will a dropoff in performance or an injury cause him to flame out? “Who knows what the world’s going to be like a year from now,” says Segal. “If it were an instant book that would be published in a month, things might even change.”

Balanced against that are several points in Lin’s favor: As a Harvard graduate, he’s probably more equipped than the average fledgling jock to produce a narrative that would require minimal heavy lifting from a co-writer or editor. Lin also has a number of overlapping built-in constituencies that would provide a ready market, from Asian-Americans to Christians to the social media power users who’ve given him a bigger footprint on the internet than Barack Obama. Plus, of course, basketball fans.

But even if Lin’s (for now hypothetical) memoir were to fetch a deal on the low end of what publishing insiders would expect, it would still have a sizable impact on his earnings: He’s due to earn a mere $610,000 from the Knicks this season, a pittance by NBA standards.

Lin’s sports agent, Roger Montgomery, has not responded to a request for comment.

Note: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that Richard Abate is representing Lin to publishers.

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